Chicago

march madness (in april of 1934)

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Hawkish:  A cast of Black Hawks on the ice in 1934, with (from left) Leroy Goldsworthy, Duke Dukowski, goaltender Charlie Gardiner, Doc Romnes, and Taffy Abel lined up alongside Louis Trudel. (Image: SDN-076149, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum)

Ninety years ago today, on a Tuesday of this date in 1934, the Chicago Black Hawks laid claim to their very first Stanley Cup championship with a 3-1 series win over the Detroit Red Wings. With coach Tommy Gorman at the helm, Chicago became the fourth American team in seven years to seize hockey’s most coveted trophy.

The win at Chicago Stadium was hard-fought. With captain Charlie Gardiner tending Chicago’s goal and Gardiner’s childhood friend from Winnipeg, Wilf Cude, in the Detroit net, the game was goalless through four periods. In the second overtime, when Red Wings’ star Ebbie Goodfellow took a penalty for tripping Chicago’s Tommy Cook, Harold (Mush) March scored the winner for the Black Hawks.

“The crowd cheered wildly for minutes on end,” the Regina Leader-Post reported next day. March was a son of Silton, Saskatchewan, just north of the city, so there was pride in this reporting. The Leader-Post noted that March had telephoned soon after the end of the decisive game and said he would be back in Saskatchewan within days. True to his word, he drove in later in April for a week-long visit.

With him was the puck that he’d sent past Cude. “That’s one souvenir,” the paper ventured, “that nobody will be able to pry loose from Harold.”

In 1931, March had scored the very first goal at Maple Leaf Gardens upon its opening, fooling Leafs’ Lorne Chabot. Not sure about the Stanley Cup keepsake, but that MLG puck was still on March’s bedroom dresser when he died in 2002 at the age of 93.

Silton Scintillant: Saskatchewan’s own Mush March, and puck (with teammate Paul Thompson in the background).

hemstitched helge

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A birthday yesterday for Helge Bostrom, who was born in Winnipeg in 1894. Pictured here in 1933, second from the left, Bostrom got to the NHL late in his career as a bulksome defenceman. He was 35 when he joined the Chicago Blackhawks in 1929, playing subsequently in parts of four seasons, ’32-33 being the last. Named Chicago’s captain that year, he was the oldest player in the NHL. He was slowed that year by his recovery from a cut suffered in an accidental meeting with a skate belonging to Earl Seibert of the New York Rangers and played only half of Chicago’s schedule, and just two games (his last in the NHL) in the latter part of the season. He later served as an assistant coach in Chicago, a deputy to Clem Loughlin.

Throughout his career, Bostrom was known for the repairs he’d undergone: in ’32 the Chicago Tribune called him “hockey’s most hemstitched player,” crediting him with 242 career sutures. (N.B.: There remains some question of where a number like that might rate in the realm of all-time hockey stitch-statistics.)

Bostrom’s teammates here are (from left) Teddy Graham, Art Coulter, and Taffy Abel. On this day in 1924, it so happens, a younger Abel was on his way to the Winter Olympics with the U.S. team that had set sail the previous day from New York aboard the President Garfield headed for the tournament in Chamonix, France.

(Image: SDN-073827, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum)

chicago hopes

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Hawkish: Coach Tommy Gorman and his Chicago Black Hawks were poised to take the Stanley Cup for the first time in the team’s history on a Sunday of this date in 1934. Up two games in the best-of-three finals, they hosted Jack Adams’ Detroit Red Wings at Chicago Stadium — and lost, 5-2, to Larry Aurie, Wilf Cude, et al. Two days later they did get the job done, claiming the Cup with a 1-0 overtime win on Mush March’s goal. Seen here that very April, Black Hawks goaltender Charlie Gardiner poses with Gorman and defenceman Lionel Conacher. (Image: © SDN-076146, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum)

beyond the d

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The Puck Stops Here: The defensive department of the Chicago Black Hawks makes a stand ahead of the opening game of the 1935-36 NHL season. On the d, that’s Alex Levinsky on the left with partner Art Wiebe. Waiting in the nets: Mike Karakas. Chicago stood fast once the puck dropped, downing the New York Americans 3-1.

the human side of hockey!

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Teddy Graham was a busy man in the winter of 1933. At his day-job, as a frontline defenceman for the Chicago Black Hawks, he and Taffy Abel were expected to do their best preventative work in front of goaltender Charlie Gardiner, keeping opposing forwards at bay, with minimal relief — Chicago was usually dressing just four defenceman at this time.

Then, that January, Graham got a promotion if perhaps not a raise: when the Black Hawks offloaded their captain, the veteran 39-year-old defender Helge Bostrom, Graham, 28, was appointed in his stead.

Still, with things so busy at work, Graham still managed to make a detour in early February of ’33 after the Black Hawks played in Detroit, heading north for a quick visit to Owen Sound, Ontario, his hometown, where he spent his summers playing baseball with the Brooke Millionaires.

Oh, and Graham was writing a syndicated newspaper column, too — well, lending his name and insight, if maybe not actually typing out actual sentences. In a series that would start appearing on newspaper pages across the continent in early March, Graham shared wild and woolly tales from his career. “Written On Ice,” the Tribune in Great Falls, Montana, headed the column, while the Buffalo Evening News touted it as revealing “The Human Side of Hockey!”

As it turned out, being human, Graham would fall to injury later around the same time. Along with several key teammates, he would miss the end of the schedule. Contemporary accounts aren’t clear on what was ailing him, exactly, but let’s assume that it had something to do with the wrapping we’re seeing in the scene here, dated to February, with Graham under the care of Black Hawks trainer Eddie Froelich and the supervision of coach Tommy Gorman.

Chicago finished at the bottom of the NHL’s American Division that month, out of the playoffs. With several games remaining in the regular season, Chicago owner Major Frederic McLaughlin announced that Gorman was the only employee on his payroll whose job was safe. “From today on,” he told the papers, “I will sell or trade any member of the squad, or all of them if necessary, to make certain of a berth in the Stanley Cup series next year.”

“It is apparent that not a few of our players have outworn their welcomes here,” he continued. “New faces are needed, and we’ll get them.”

That was good-bye for Teddy Graham: in October, he was traded to the Montreal Maroons in exchange for Lionel Conacher. (Charlie Gardiner succeeded him as captain.)

McLaughlin, it should be noted, got his wish: by the end of the 1933-34 season, Tommy Gorman had not only steered Chicago into the playoffs, he contrived to win the Cup, Chicago’s first.

 

(Image: © Chicago Sun-Times Media. SDN-074245, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum)

hawk on high

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Chuck Check-Up: Born in Edinburgh, in Scotland, on a Saturday of today’s date in 1904, Charlie Gardiner grew up goaling in Winnipeg before he found fame stopping pucks for the Chicago Black Hawks. He played just seven NHL seasons before his untimely death of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 29 in 1934. This photograph dates to December of 1933; the following April he led Chicago to its first Stanley Cup championship. Gardiner won the Vézina Trophy in 1932 and ’34. In 1945, he was one of the inaugural class named to the Hockey Hall of Fame. (Image: SDN-073822, © Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum)

might as well jump

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Ice Capades: A trio of Black Hawk wingers puts on a show for the camera in December of 1933 at Chicago’s Stadium. From left, they are Johnny Gottselig, Louis Trudel, and Rosie Couture. (Image: SDN-075758, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum, © Chicago Sun-Times Media)

chicago’s opening act, 1926: the going was sticky

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A crowd of 7,000 was on hand at Chicago’s Coliseum on a night like this 96 years ago as the Chicago Black Hawks made their NHL debut on Wednesday, November 17, 1926 against the Toronto St. Patricks. The two captains shook on it before the game got going: that’s Chicago centreman (and future NHL coaching great) Dick Irvin on the left along with Toronto’s Bert Corbeau. “The Chicago team showed better combination and condition than their opponents,” was the report wired back to Toronto’s Globe after the expansion Black Hawks had prevailed by a score of 4-1.

Hughie Lehman was manning the Chicago net that night; the goals came from George Hay, Irvin, Gord Fraser, and Rabbit McVeigh. John Ross Roach did his best between the Toronto pipes. Scoring for the St. Pats was another coach-to-be, Hap Day, playing the right wing as he did in those days before he dropped back to the defence.

“The ice in the second period started to melt a bit,” the Chicago Tribune noted, “and the going was sticky and the puck jumped and rolled frequently making shots difficult and accuracy in passing almost impossible.” Trib correspondent Frank Schreiber wasn’t overly impressed by either aggregation, all in all. “Both teams fought hard,” he wrote, “but neither displayed more than an average attack or defence.”

mr. october

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The Montreal Canadiens were never going to trade their superstar Howie Morenz … until, this week in 1934, they did just that, sending their 32-year-old centreman, along with goaltender Lorne Chabot and defenceman Marty Burke, to the Chicago Black Hawks in exchange for winger Leroy Goldsworthy and defencemen Lionel Conacher and Roger Jenkins.

Morenz’s former Montreal teammates bade him farewell the following week with a banquet at Café Martin, Leo Dandurand’s restaurant at 2175 rue de la Montagne. Dandurand himself played toastmaster that evening; Tommy Gorman, Aurèle Joliat, and Montreal mayor Camilien Houde all addressed the gathering of 200 guests.

Four days later, Morenz was in Chicago to sign a contract with the Black Hawks, before joining his new teammates in Champaign, Illinois, for the team’s pre-season training camp. That may be where this October photograph was taken; that Chicago coach Clem Loughlin standing in as umpire here, with winger Johnny Gottselig playing the catcher’s part. On the ice, Loughlin initially tried Morenz in a couple of  combinations, skating him between Mush March and Norman Locking to start camp, then lining him up with Gottselig and Lolo Couture. It was with the latter duo that Morenz made his Chicago debut when the Black Hawks opened their season on November 8, hitting the road to beat the St. Louis Eagles 3-1. That night, Morenz assisted on the goal Gottselig put past Bill Beveridge to open the scoring.

(Image: SDN-076744, Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum)

poke hero

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Jacques Of All Trades: Stan Mikita scored the winning goal on the night, but this wasn’t it: this time, in the second period of a 4-1 Stanley Cup semi-final home win by the Chicago Black Hawks over Montreal’s Canadiens, goaltender Jacques Plante did what he needed to do to stymie the attack. It was April of 1962, a year in which a 22-year-old Mikita, playing in his fourth NHL season, was named to the NHL’s First All-Star team. Born in 1940 on a Monday of this date in Sokolče, in what today is Slovakia, Mikita finished that year’s regular season with 25 goals and 77 points, which tied him with Detroit’s Gordie Howe for third on the league’s scoring chart, behind New York’s Andy Bathgate and his own teammate Bobby Hull, seen here in following up on the play. The other Montrealers are J.C. Tremblay and, behind him, Don Marshall.

tommy hawk

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Cookery Book: Born in Fort William, Ontario, on a Tuesday of this very date in 1907, centreman Tommy Cook made his NHL with Major Frederic McLaughlin’s Chicago Black Hawks in 1929. Eight seasons he played in Chicago, winning a Stanley Cup in 1934. Coach Clem Loughlin shed him early in the 1936-37 campaign, as he tried to shake up his flailing club, charging Cook with “failure to keep in playing condition” and “lax behavior.” Cook caught on briefly, after that, with Montreal’s Maroons before his NHL career ended in 1938.

johnny gottselig: the deftest puck-nursing virtuoso in the league 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

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Johnny Gottselig was only ever, and very much, a Chicago Black Hawk: a useful left winger in his skating days, which lasted 16 NHL seasons, captain when they won an unlikely Stanley Cup championship in 1938, he later coached the team and (later still) served as its long-time director of public relations. He was born in 1905 in what today is very much Ukraine, in the village of Klosterdorf, on the Dnieper River, in Kherson Oblast. He was three months old when he emigrated to Canada with his parents, landing as homesteaders in Holdfast, Saskatchewan. Gottselig grew up Regina, which is where he learned his hockey.

He picked up a stick early on, but as the story’s told, he only started on skates when he was 16. Seven years later, he made his NHL debut with the Black Hawks. He was a key figure when Chicago won its first Stanley Cup championship in 1934. That year, Chicago’s Scottish-born goaltender Charlie Gardiner became the NHL’s first European-born captain to win the Cup; Gottselig was the second, in 1938. Gottselig was also the league’s second European-born head coach, after the Black Hawks’ Emil Iverson, who started in Denmark.

As a Black Hawk, Gottselig scored some goals, leading the team five times in scoring. A noted stickhandler, he was a renowned killer of penalties. “The best solution to a Hawk penalty, Chicago Tribune sportswriter Ted Damata wrote in 1945, “was to send John onto the ice. He became the deftest puck-nursing virtuoso in the league, tantalizing full-strength teams with his nimble touch in mid-ice.” Damata would remember him as the only player he’d ever seen who’d controlled the puck for the entire two minutes of a penalty.

A noted baseball player, Gottselig was also a manager in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, steering the Racine Bells, the Peoria Redwings, and the Kenosha Comets in the 1940s. He died in Chicago in 1986 at the age of 80.

Hawktalker: In his time as Chicago’s PR director, Gottselig lent his voice to game broadcasts in the late ’40s and into the ’50s.